Abbey Toot
Assistant Professor of Theatre
About Abbey Toot
Abbey is a teaching artist currently directing and teaching acting, voice and speech, movement and Shakespeare. Abbey received performance degrees from the University of Evansville and the University of California, Irvine. She spent time in Chicago as an actor and teaching artist before making her way to the Raleigh/Triangle area of North Carolina. She taught Voice and Speech at Elon University and has taught acting, voice, speech, physical storytelling, camera work and other classes at UC Irvine, UNC Chapel Hill and USCB, and has been an actor, director and Acting/Voice coach in Chicago and Chapel Hill.
In North Carolina Abbey reignited her curiosity of how breath affects the voice and body and how that, in turn, affects human behavior and relationships. She began studying and working with the Miller Voice Method and is part of the inaugural cohort of certified Miller Voice Method teachers. Abbey has extensive training in Fitzmaurice Voicework, Knight/Thompson Speechwork, Linklater and other voice methodologies. She has trained in Contact Improvisation, Michael Chekhov work, Stanislavski, Meisner, clowning and The Emotional Body. She remains curious and investigative about the balance of organized mental knowledge with deep instinctual body knowledge. Breath and curiosity live at the center of everything she does and she is constantly playing with creating space, building a supporting structure and releasing into immediacy.
Education
M.F.A. in Acting, University of California Irvine
B.S. in Theatre Performance, Minor in Languages, University of Evansville
Miller Voice Method, Certified Teacher (inaugural cohort)
